Pin Chasers Brandon — Attraction in Brandon

I have been coming here for years. Oakfield used to be much less inexpensive than locations closer to my home. Before it was bought out by Pin Chasers, it only costs roughly $10 per person to play 2 games and rent bowling shoes. It now costs $10 per game for one person! If one plans to bowl more than one game, one might as well purchase 2 hours instead of two games, which costs $18 per bowler for 2 hours. I hate having a time limit when bowling; I always feel rushed.

A large drink used to cost just $2. Now, they come to over $4 after tax. Previously, nothing on the menu cost over $10. Now, it is impossible to purchase anything from the snack bar for under $10. One cannot even order a cheese burger or a cheesesteak anymore. Even an order of French fries goes for $10! This is absolutely ridiculous. As I wasn't going to spend $30-40 on food my party of three, I opted to purchase a pizza (for $20). A gratuity was automatically added in. I would have tipped anyway, but I hate when places force customers to tip!

On 2/17/2024, before reserving a lane online, I called and asked very specifically if I would be refunded the amount charged to my credit card. I was told that this charge would be refunded and the it was simply to hold my spot, but if I didn't show, the charge would go through. When I called to inquire about this today, I was told something entirely different. Apparently, it costs $10 just to reserve a lane. However, if you don't reserve a lane, you'll end up having to wait around for at least an hour. Before they were bought out by Pin Chasers, I never had to wait more than 20 minutes for a lane.

I also experienced five errors with the lane's ability to count how many pins dropped. This means an error happened in over 8% of the frames. For example, one knocked down 8 pins, but the score was recorded as 9. When one knocked down 1 pin on one's next throw, one was given a spare. THIS HAPPENED FIVE TIMES!

I used to pass by three bowling alleys on my way to Oakfield Lanes. It isn't the nicest bowling alley in the area, by leaps and bounds, but it used to be the most affordable. They haven't upgraded the lanes. The bar and snack bar are still exactly the same. The arcade is different, but I wouldn't consider it upgraded. If anything, the games are worse. One can now order drinks from the bar at anytime, so I suppose that's the singular good thing that has come from the Pin Chasers takeover. Unfortunately, the women tending bar are straight up rude. One talked badly about the guy working in the kitchen just because he smiled at her. Neither asked me, "how are you?" or anything similar. Only one was taking order while the other was just standing around. People who walked in after me where helped before me. I had to wait for 10 minutes just to place an order!

The best thing about Oakfield Lanes was the prices. If I am going to pay the same price to bowl at a super nice place such as The Alley in Riverview, I might as well go to The Alley in Riverview. It's a shame that Pin Chasers purchased this place. It was the last affordable, family-owned bowling alley in Hillsborough County. The prices for everything, aside for alcoholic beverages, have increased by over 100%.

I am very upset that my favorite bowling alley is now nothing more than the worst Pin Chasers location in Hillsborough County. If they are going to charge such expensive prices, they should at least update the lanes, the bar, the shoes, the front desk, the arcade, the billiards tables, the snack bar, the carpeting, etc. I have been bowling at Oakfield for over a decade, but the visit on 2/17/2024 will be my last. The lanes at The Ally in Riverview, and the entire building itself, is much nicer. Oakfield has a very 80s feel, which was fine when games cost $4 per person, but now that Pin Chasers jacked up the prices by 100%+, it is simply unwise to go...

If I could give this place 0 stars I would. It all started one Saturday night when we were bowling with the family. The sweeper thing was "acting up" and coming down while the ball was rolling down the lane. The solution was to move us. Now this had happened before on a prior visit and the employees were rude the first night with the kids blaming them. Well this night once they moved us it continued to happen. It was happening on other lanes and many were observing our issue. Move us again for the 3rd time fine. They were trying to come up with solutions considering we paid the flat fee to bowl for 2.5 hrs but were standing around for over an hour. I have videos of the incident that I may post on their Facebook page if you care to see. Then Deb brought over 8 free game coupons to hubby when I knew I should have asked for a refund and I personally would have. By this time there was only about 30 mins left of bowling and the family was just glad to be back bowling. Either way we went back today to use the oh so great free coupons they gave us and we knew we were going to pay the shoe rental for 5 people AGAIN because we knew they'd make money off of us again but then they told us we could only use 1 coupon per visit. So the next trip when we use 1 we have to pay for shoes again. I spoke to the Captain Rick or whatever he calls himself sitting at the front desk with his back turned.. was absolutely rude and told me he didn't care what I had to say I could pay it or leave and he can't change policy and I can come back and talk to Tammy if I didn't like it. Well here Tammy... your employees are very miserable and rude outside of the longer curly haired gentleman always at the register. Unacceptable.. they need training and customer service skills. Curly hair employee said when he had seen us walk through the door he didn't think he would ever see us again because of the incident the week prior. How do you give coupons that we can only use one of at a time when there is 6 of us.. how does that work?? We were there to bowl for 2 hours not stand around while your equipmentmal functioned. Save yourself and go to BCB. Surprisingly it was cheaper there on a Friday night anyways. EDIT- Debbie had reached out to me regarding the incident at the desk and invited the family back to bowl and apologized. We accepted her offer and returned for a FREE night of bowling on them shoes included. It's amazing that she was able to override it but the other manager wasn't. I appreciate them providing a resolution. We had no issues with the lanes when we returned and she did provide us an explanation as to what was happening at the original visit. Will...

Today was my family’s first and last time visiting this bowling alley. The vibe was off as soon as we reached the front desk. The two older gentlemen working the desk were not welcoming at all to the point where it was just odd hard to explain. Felt like we shouldn’t be there We still proceeded to make our purchase. We were assigned two lanes during our game we had to stop playing a total of four times because both lanes continued to have mechanical issues. Each time it took me or my husband to go back up to the same two gentleman at the front desk and have them page someone. Never at any point apologizing for the inconvenience . The last time we waited more than 10 minutes of just standing there waiting for the lane to be fixed. Just for another lady to walk up and yell FROM the desk to our lane it’s going to be a minute. Well obviously because it’s already been ten and it’s now the fourth time we are waiting around for you guys to fix our lanes. After the second time we asked if we could just switch lanes since these two seem to continue to be a problem. He bypassed the question later on after time number four was fixed and we had two turns left he walked up and moved us it wasn’t needed at this point we were almost done. He once again showed no customer service skills and said he’s choosing to move us now but couldn’t earlier because they had no lanes open next to each other. Which I will add was false because when we originally asked if we could be moved there were several lanes open in a row further down. Long story short we spent over $100 here today on one game of bowling and snacks and will never return. We understand things happen you can’t predict what the machines are going to do. However you can control your customer service skills and the way you handle situations. Especially when it’s happening to the family you already made feel unwelcome from the moment they walked...